1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of content and/or data delivery over a network. More particularly, the present invention is related to apparatus and methods for distributing programming content, media, data and other information services via apparatus disposed on a user premises (e.g., residence, enterprise, etc.).
2. Description of Related Technology
Recent advances in digital information processing have made a range of services and functions available for delivery to consumers at their premises for very reasonable prices or subscription fees. These services and functions include digital broadcast programming (movies, etc.), digital video-on-demand (VOD), personal video recorder (PVR), Internet Protocol television (IPTV), digital media playback and recording, as well high speed internet access and IP-based telephony (e.g., VoIP). Other services available to network users include access to and recording of digital music (e.g., MP3 files), as well local area networking (including wire-line and wireless local area networks) for distributing these services throughout the user's premises, and beyond.
Currently, in the context of content-based networks, many of these services are provided and delivered to the user via a variety of different equipment environments including, inter alia, cable modems and computers, cable set-top boxes, and digital video recorders (DVRs). This unfortunately presents the user with a somewhat heterogeneous mixture of substantially separate hardware and software environments.
Some improvements in digital service integration have been made over time. For example, cable system subscribers (such as those of the Assignee hereof) can now access VOD, PVR, PPV and broadcast services simultaneously, as well a Internet access via cable modem, and even digital telephony (e.g., VoIP).
A variety of residential or home “gateway” devices for use with cable television networks and that integrate various functions are disclosed in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,319 to Gurusami, et al. issued Sep. 17, 1996 entitled “Subscriber return system for CATV full service networks” discloses a subscriber premise local bus (SPLB) is connected to a cable drop from a wide-band 2-way network through a gateway device providing frequency conversion and blocking of certain frequencies used in the subscriber premises local bus (SPLB). Service channels to the consumer are provided in a first band such as 54 to 750 MHZ, carried unchanged over the SPLB. Return signals from the subscriber are generated at subscriber devices, such as TV, computers, etc. at, or are up-converted to, signals in a higher frequency band, such as 900 to 950 Mhz, for transmission on the SPLB to the gateway device where they are down-converted to frequencies below 54 Mhz for transmission over the network. A band-pass or other filter may block at least some of the lower frequencies from carrying over from the SPLB to the cable drop or 2-way network.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,884 to Eames, et al. issued Nov. 13, 2001 entitled “Video, data and telephony gateway” discloses a residential gateway for distributing video, data and telephony services. The gateway has a MPEG bus connected from a network interface module to a first and a second video processors. A microprocessor controls the first and second video processors by sending control signals across a control bus.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,396,531 to Gerszberg, et al. issued May 28, 2002 entitled “Set top integrated visionphone user interface having multiple menu hierarchies” discloses a system architecture for bypassing a local exchange carrier that comprises an intelligent terminal, a residential gateway coupled to the terminal, a cable facility management platform terminating a twisted pair or coaxial cable facility and a network service platform. The platform serves both a cable headend and a telephone DSL network to enable a single service provider to provide different information content services independent of how a user actually receives the services. The integrated residence gateway is coupled to either or both of the coaxial cable or twisted pair and distributes the bandwidth facilities available over either service vehicle to customer devices including the set top box.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,546,016 to Gerszberg, et al. issued Apr. 8, 2003 entitled “Coaxial cable/twisted pair cable telecommunications network architecture” discloses a system architecture for bypassing a local exchange carrier comprises an intelligent terminal, a residential gateway coupled to the terminal, a cable facility management platform terminating a twisted pair or coaxial cable facility and a network service platform. The twisted pair and/or coaxial cable fed, integrated residence gateway controlled intelligent terminal or set-top device provides a plurality of enhanced services. One necessary service is lifeline service which may be provided over the coaxial cable via a cable modem of the integrated residence gateway, over the twisted pair facility or via wireless means. The integrated residence gateway is coupled to either or both of the coaxial cable or twisted pair and distributes the bandwidth facilities available over either service vehicle to customer devices including the set top box.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,742 to Kishi, et al. issued Mar. 23, 2004 entitled “Cable modem system using CATV transmission path” discloses a cable modem system prevents an up-link noise from entering a cable so as to efficiently use the bandwidth of a CATV transmission path. The cable modem system performs data communication using the transmission path of a cable television system which includes a cable television station apparatus and a plurality of subscriber units connected to each other by the transmission path. A gateway apparatus receives an original data signal supplied by one of the subscriber units via a telephone network. The gateway apparatus converts the original data signal into a converted data signal so that the converted data signal complies with a protocol corresponding to a destination address included in the original data signal. The gateway apparatus sends the converted data signal to the cable television station apparatus via the transmission path. A line end terminal unit is provided in the cable television station apparatus so as to receive the converted data signal sent from the gateway apparatus. The line end terminal unit restores the converted data signal to the original data signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,018 to Fisher issued Aug. 16, 2005 entitled “Local network router and method of routing IP data packets” discloses a local network router that learns to route IP traffic among customer premises equipment on a local network rather than permitting the IP traffic to be routed through a broadband cable network and selected internet service provider (ISP) to the internet. The local network router dynamically generates a routing table from address resolution protocol (ARP) packets exchanged between the CPE and the external network. For each IP data packet received from a CPE that is destined for another local CPE, the local network router replaces a default gateway with the destination CPE. Accordingly, network resources for routing traffic are significantly reduced.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,978,474 to Sheppard, et al. issued Dec. 20, 2005 entitled “Media interface device” discloses a Residential Gateway (RG) for distributing video, data and telephone services to multiple devices within a residence. The RG receives signals from a telecommunications network, converts the signals to formats compatible with the multiple devices, and transmits the appropriate signals to the appropriate devices. Wireless remote control devices (RCs) associated with remotely located televisions (TVs) transmit channel select commands to the RG as wireless signals. The wireless signals are received by Remote Antennae Packages (RAPs) coupled to the remotely located TVs. The RAPs transmit the wireless signals over coaxial cable to a Media Interface Device (MID) coupled to the RG. The MID extracts the channel select commands and forwards them to the RG. The MID is also capable of combining and splitting TV signals, and adjusting the impedance of network signals so that they can be transmitted over the coaxial cable.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20010030950 to Chen, et al. published Oct. 18, 2001 entitled “Broadband communications access device” discloses an integrated phone-based home gateway system. The integrated phone-based home gateway system includes a broadband communication device, such as digital subscriber line (“DSL”) device, an analog modem, and a wireless interface, integrated into a screen-phone for providing broadband communication service to home users. Multiple home users are able to access the Internet and the content services for conducting e-commerce, receiving content news, entertaining on-demand, making audio or video communications, and telecommuting or working at home. This screen-phone based, modular, plug-n-play home gateway interface allows in-home as well as to-home networking, provides automatic data and broadband initialization, configuration and service provisioning, routing and bridging functionality and allows resource sharing among home devices via the existing phone wire, wireless, coaxial or optical cable connections.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20050055729 to Atad, et al. published Mar. 10, 2005 entitled “Video broadcasting with return channel” discloses a TV broadcasting system that comprises: an outward broadcast link to reach each of a plurality of user receiver installations via satellite or via a terrestrial channel, and a return link from each of said plurality of users, said return channel being a terrestrial channel via a wide area network, typically a WAN, of which WAN said user receiver installations form a node. The WAN may also support an uplink. A satellite or terrestrial receiver installation is modified with an extra terrestrial antenna for the WAN and a splitter combiner allows the already installed cable link to the TV receiver to be retained. A residential gateway allows a household LAN and communication enabled devices to be supported via the TV/WAN infrastructure.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20050165899 to Mazzola published Jul. 28, 2005 entitled “Provisioning quality of service in home networks using a proxy interface” discloses a home gateway and interface system and method for providing quality of service to a home LAN device on a home network that is not QoS capable. The gateway comprises a modem (e.g., cable, DSL modem) and a portal service proxy interface. The modem is connected between the home network and a WAN cable network, and is operable to bridge traffic between the home LAN of the home network and the WAN cable network. The portal service interface is connected to the modem and is utilized as a proxy for QoS reservations and data communications between the home LAN devices on the home network. The portal interface acts on behalf of a client to make requests of the non-QoS capable home LAN devices and communicate these QoS needs to the QoS capable devices.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20060041915 to Dimitrova, et al. published Feb. 23, 2006 entitled “Residential gateway system having a handheld controller with a display for displaying video signals” discloses a residential gateway system that includes a residential gateway to which a plurality of video and audio signal recording and reproducing devices, video and audio sources, including satellite, cable, Internet, are connected, and including a handheld controller for communicating with and controlling the residential gateway. The handheld controller has a display screen for displaying icons for controlling the residential gateway, and for displaying video signals from the residential gateway. Since the display capabilities of the display screen of the handheld controller are limited, the residential gateway includes a transcoder for transcoding video signals for transmission to the handheld controller such that the transmitted video signals may be displayed in their entirety on the display screen of the handheld controller. By transcoding the video signals prior to transmission, valuable bandwidth of the network channel connecting the handheld controller to the residential gateway is save for the transmission of other information and signals.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20060136968 to Han, et al. published Jun. 22, 2006 entitled “Apparatus for distributing same/different digital broadcasting streams in heterogeneous home network and method thereof” discloses an apparatus for distributing same/different digital broadcasting streams in a heterogeneous home network and a method thereof. The apparatus includes a home gateway, and a home server, connected to the home gateway through Ethernet and also connected to a PC, a second IP STB, a 1394 STB, an HAS (Home Auto System) and an HDTV receiver, for outputting a ground-wave broadcast, a satellite broadcast and a cable broadcast to their HDTV receivers, respectively, through the second IP STB and the 1394 STB if the ground-wave broadcast, the satellite broadcast and the cable broadcast are received through coaxial cables, interworking with the HAS in order to control home appliances, and directly outputting the broadcast to the HDTV receiver through a built-in STB function. According to the apparatus, a user having a plurality of HDTV receivers at home can simultaneously view a plurality of HDTV broadcasts irrespective of the broadcasting systems when a plurality of heterogeneous home networks match through a home network matching device.
However, despite the foregoing variety of prior art “gateway” configurations, the various supported functions are still substantially disparate in terms of their hardware and software environments. This is particularly true in extant cable television installations, wherein the user must have a separate cable modem, set-top box, VoIP telephony unit, PC, etc. to perform these differing functions. “Cross-over” between the environments (e.g., moving content or data from one environment to the other) is often quite limited as well due to either hardware/software incompatibilities, conditional access or digital rights management (DRM) constraints, and the like.
Moreover, many of the aforementioned device architectures typically leverage a number of costly and in some cases duplicative technologies. This adds cost not only for the consumer (e.g., those buying retail devices), but also to the network operator such as a cable MSO, since they must expend more in outfitting a subscriber with given capabilities than they would otherwise, were less costly and less duplicative technologies used. One salient example of this is the use of multiple tuners and supporting RF front-end components (e.g., modulators/demodulators, DACs/ADCs, etc.) in each separate device; e.g., one or more video tuners, and an OOB tuner, within a given STB or DVR. The OOB tuner is to communicate out-of-band with the headend or another network entity during operation, while the video or in-band tuners allow for reception and decoding of programming. These multiple tuners and supporting RF and processing components add significant cost to a device.
Hence, there is a need to reduce the capital cost to both network operators and customers related to deployment of customer premises equipment, while at the same time preserving current services and features, and enabling the ready adoption new capabilities in the consumer's premises. Such reduction would ideally be provided through apparatus and methods that would simplify premises equipment and network infrastructure through e.g., unification of one or more functions present within the various equipment environments.